


Plenty of Fish

by MoonlightShines (Thatkillervibe)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Awesome Caitlin, Bretans, Brief mention of aquaman, Canon Compliant, F/M, Feelingssss, Fluff, For the most part, Ralph gets kidnapped, Stakeout, lots of fish, stranger things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 14:07:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16369049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thatkillervibe/pseuds/MoonlightShines
Summary: “So Ralph’s missing, there’s a species of mobster fish people stealing humans who all seem to have sea-diving skills—““—Merpeople,” Cisco interjected from his chair.Iris shot him a withering look.“Hey! I’m not gonna gender discriminate the mobsters by assuming they’re all men. Women can be underwater crime lords too.”Cisco caught Caitlin biting back a grin.~.~In which Cisco and Caitlin go on a stakeout.





	Plenty of Fish

**Author's Note:**

> Ya'll I should be studying oops. Set a bit in the future, but still canon compliant.

“So Ralph’s missing, there’s a species of mobster fish people stealing humans who all seem to have sea-diving skills—“

 

“—Merpeople,” Cisco interjected from his chair.

 

Iris shot him a withering look.

 

“Hey! I’m not gonna gender discriminate the mobsters by assuming they’re all men. Women can be underwater crime lords too.”

 

Cisco caught Caitlin biting back a grin from behind her lab, where she was carefully analyzing severed gills from a murdered family member of these fish people species.

 

“They’re not Merpeople,” Barry stressed, running his hand over his face. “They called themselves The...Bretans?”

 

Cisco pursed his lips.  “All I’m saying is if you’re gonna tell me there’s fish that can walk on land, that’s a textbook definition of a Merperson. We’re under qualified, I think we should call Aquaman.”

 

“We’re _not_ calling Aquaman Cisco, I only met him once for, like, _three_ seconds. Besides, they kidnapped Ralph. That makes this _our_ problem.”

 

“Oh Ralph,” Caitlin muttered, “Why’d you have to go boating in the Bermuda Triangle over New Years?”

 

“Okay, we’re getting off track,” Iris said, clapping her hands like an elementary school teacher, a behavioural technique that came in handy more than Cisco cared to admit.  “Babe, maybe instead of taunting Cisco, you give him something to _do_.”

 

“Fine!” Barry glanced at Caitlin and snapped his fingers with an idea. “Cisco, why don’t you try vibing the gills?”

 

Both Cisco and Caitlin made a face.

 

“Oh, that’s gross but whatever. Ralph owes me.”

 

Caitlin delicately picked up the limp gills from behind her microscope with her gloves for Cisco.

 

He put his hands on the wet flesh and gasped as the world tilted and twirled. His head never seemed to get used to the bone crushing pressure that came with vibes.

 

Suddenly it was dark, and Cisco had to blink several times to adjust to the zero lighting. It was nighttime, that’s why it was hard to see. He didn’t know how or why, but he was absolutely certain this scene is tonight. He heard talking in gibberish smattered with several words of broken English by—Yep, those were Merpeople alright. Men (And two women! Beat that Iris!) in business suits with fins sprouting out of their human backs. He turned to the right and recognized the laundromat down the street. The left showed a small house with—

 

“An address!”  He stumbled out of the vibe and back into reality. “I got an address for their next meetup sometime tonight. Here. Central City.”

 

Barry and Iris high fived as Caitlin deposited the fish parts to strip off her gooey gloves. She placed a hand on Cisco’s shoulder, steadying him.

 

“Maybe they’ll have Ralph,” said Barry.

 

Iris shook her head. “Why do these Bretans even need Ralph anyway? He doesn’t fit with the rest of the kidnapped people unless he’s been hiding a passion for deep sea diving from us.”

 

Cisco pointed at her, “That’s totally plausible.”

 

“No no,” Caitlin refuted. “I’m assuming it’s his unique polymer physiology. If he could stretch and contort himself into any manner, that gives him the ability to be an excellent swimmer, the best swimmer, maybe, this side of the coast.”

 

Cisco nodded along, catching her drift. “So you don’t think they want to sell him as a part of their kidnapping trade. You think they want him for something.”

 

“Precisely.” Caitlin beamed at him. Cisco grinned back, her excitement infectious. Caitlin’s hand had yet still to leave Cisco’s shoulder. He liked it, her touch on him. It was gravitational, like she was trying to tether him to her after his vibe. Unnecessary, but nice.

 

“Cool,” Barry said, taking notes on the whiteboard. “So far this is our best lead.”

 

He looked between Cisco and Caitlin.

 

“You two have been on a roll today, feel up for a classic stakeout? I’ve got the feeling this is the kind of thing Joe would rather sit out.”

 

Cisco turned to Caitlin, who had let go of him to shrug off her lab coat. She wrinkled her nose. “Staying in a car all night in the middle of the winter?”

 

Cisco pouted. “Aww, c’mon. It’s been forever since we’ve done sleuthing together, not since like, 2016 when we pretended to be Reverb and Killer Frost. You have to admit that was fun.”

 

Caitlin bit her lip. “It was fun.”

 

“I’ll keep us entertained. We can get Big Belly Burger...Catch up on Stranger Things…”

 

Cisco knew she was in the moment her mouth twitched upwards at the mention of Big Belly Burger. “Fine, I’m in,” she said. “We can leave at sundown.”

 

“Yaaasss!” Cisco cheered, and both Barry and Iris chuckled at his enthusiasm.

 

“We can take the Star Labs Van,” Caitlin suggested.

 

“Oh man, I forgot all about that thing. Does it even have gas?” He ran to the nearest sink to wipe the rest of the gunk off his hands.

 

“Okay,” Barry smiled, and then his phone chirped. “CCPD, I gotta go. Sounds like a plan guys, keep me posted.”

 

~.~

 

They met at the Star Labs garage at the end of the day, both Cisco and Caitlin bundled up for their stakeout. It was only 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and they’d most probably have to cut the heat off to stay inconspicuous.

 

Caitlin climbed into the passenger seat of the van and looked Cisco over. “Cute hat.”

 

“Thanks, you got it for me.”

 

“Oh, I know. I also got you those boots because you weren’t dressing warm enough last winter.”

 

Cisco spared her a glance as he turned on the engine, glad to see that they still had a half tank.

 

“Gracias mi corazoncito. I appreciate it.”

 

Caitlin blushed. Cisco did a double take. Was it the Spanish or the endearment? It sort of just slipped out, and he hadn't thought she knew what corazoncito meant.

 

Huh, interesting.

 

He rubbed his hands against the cold steering wheel in a feeble attempt to warm them up, then put his foot on the pedal to get on the road.

 

 

“So what do you think the Merpeople—“

 

“Bretans.”

 

"— _Merpeople_ are up to?” Cisco asked as he pulled into the Big Belly Burger Drive-Thru line. “Kidnapping humans to pull off some sort of The Little Mermaid deal? Offering the legs of innocent humans to a sea witch so they can swap their tails?”

 

Caitlin laughed. “That’s absurd.”

 

“Hey, nothing’s impossible anymore. King Shark literally exists, remember? All we know is one day merpeople—“

 

“Bretans!”

 

“Sheesh, _fine_. One day  _Bretans_ were a myth and now there are fish citizens causing mayhem on Earth 1.”

 

“It does sound fishy,” Caitlin joked.

 

Cisco stuck out his tongue as he inched their van closer to the menu sign and then asked her what she wanted to order.

 

~.~

 

“This is boring. I’m bored,” Caitlin complained, yawning twenty minutes after they finished season 3 of Stranger Things.

 

Cisco stared at the monitor screens set up in front of them showing a whole lot of nothing and agreed. “Yeah, I don’t know how Joe does this all the time.”

 

Caitlin pulled out her phone to scroll through her Facebook. Cisco peered over her shoulder.

 

“Hey,” he said, “You should download the popular app of the week. It’s a mobile version of ‘Would You Rather?’ The developers grew up in Central City apparently so they threw in a few city questions.”

 

Caitlin typed in the search bar of the App Store and downloaded it.

 

She turned her phone sideways to read the first question. “Would you rather go without CC Jitters for a year or Big Belly Burger for a year? You go first.”

 

Cisco blinked. “Oh damn, that’s tough….Big Belly? We go to CC Jitters all the time, it would be too hard to not drink coffee.”

 

Caitlin waved her half eaten burger in front of his face. “Really? A whole year without this? Because I wouldn’t give up these for anything. Buy your own coffee maker. ”

 

Cisco scowled. “Next question.”

 

Caitlin chuckled, “Um, okay,” She swiped left. "Would you rather be saved by Killer Frost, Elongated Man or Vibe? Hey! I made it on the app!" 

 

"Of course you did. You're a superhero." 

 

Caitlin looked out the window. "Thanks, that means a lot." 

 

"It's true. I know she'd have my back any day." 

 

"Well that's awkward because I'd pick Ralph." 

 

Cisco rolled his eyes, "Oh, you're a comedian now?" 

 

Caitlin swiped left. “Have your shirts always be two sizes too big or two sizes too small?”

 

“Two sizes too big,” they both said decisively at the same time.

 

Caitlin gave him a funny look.

“You never wear anything your size anyways.”

“Not true!” Cisco yelped, “It’s called _layering_.”

 

She reached over to pinch the arm of his coat. “You’ve got muscles Mr. I Throw Open A Hundred Breaches Per Day, but noooo, nobody ever notices.”

 

“ _You_ do.”

 

Caitlin spluttered. “That’s because I’m your _doctor._ ”

 

“Alright, gimme your phone. These questions are lame.” Caitlin handed her phone obediently, and Cisco skipped through the next seven or so plain questions.

 

“Would you rather be alone for the rest of your life or constantly be around annoying people?” He read out loud. “Well, I mean we’re literally sitting in a van freezing our asses off because Ralph got abducted by merpeople, so I think our choice is pretty clear.”

 

Caitlin shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I would’ve said alone a few years ago.”

 

Cisco stopped skipping questions to squint at her, realizing she must've been serious if she hadn't chastised him for using the wrong term. “Really?”

 

Caitlin shrugged. “You and Ronnie, and the original Star Labs changed me. Made me a people person.”

 

“Awww.” He reached into his bag to see what was left and gave Caitlin back her phone. He pulled out his little carton of fries. “Fry?” He offered a perfect one, and she took it with her teeth from right out of his hand. Cisco’s mouth dropped slightly at her brazenness.

 

“Thanks,” she said. “Mmm, okay. Oh, here’s one for you. Would you rather give up bathing for a month or the Internet for a month?”

 

Cisco’s conflicted face was enough to set Caitlin off, and she shook her head rapidly. “You know what, don’t answer that one, I don’t want to know.”

 

“I would’ve let go of the Internet!”

 

“Sure.”

 

“I would have! _Eventually._ ”

 

Cisco watched as Caitlin swiped next and went tense in her parka.

 

“What?” He asked uneasily.

 

She stared at the screen, tilting it away from him, then began talking in a fast, clipped pace.

 

“Sleep with your ex or with your best friend? Mine is obvious—I don’t have a thing for necrophilia with a sociopath.” She smiled tightly.

  
  
Cisco nearly gagged. He forced himself to swallow the lukewarm curly fries down his throat. This was...Not a good question. He ignored his internal panic to focus on Caitlin’s answer.

  
  
“Hey—No. You’re forgetting Julian.”

  
  
Caitlin sloshed around her cup of Big Belly Soda, “No, we were never official.”

  
  
Cisco narrowed his eyes. “You so were. All he would do is babble about you. Bossing me around to make things too, _‘Caitlin needs the necklace this’_ — _‘Caitlin needs the antidote that’_ —And a whole lot of _‘Hey mates, do you know where Caitlin likes to eat.’_ ”

 

It was weird the way he was getting worked up. At the end of the day, Cisco owes Julian his life. If it weren’t for his enormous crush, Caitlin would be dead. And if she had really gone the same year as Dante, he might have done something beyond stupid, something that would probably make him un-alive today. The thought made him want to throw up.

  
  
Caitlin scoffed. “He was a good friend, I'll give him that. Then Barry told me about his trip to 2020 where Killer Frost helped Savitar. Julian was her jailer. Like a fascinated zoo keeper. I was his pet project.”

  
  
Cisco made another disgruntled face. “He was okay. Not for you, though.”

  
  
Caitlin hummed in agreement. “Your turn.”

  
  
“Best friend,” Cisco said rather quickly.

  
  
He turned to look out the window, hoping that the Merpeople would make an appearance in the next ten seconds or so that they wouldn't have to continue this conversation.

  
  
“What—Not Cynthia? You’d choose Barry?”

  
  
“Barry? Uh, no—I meant, um. Well—“ he chuckled awkwardly, scratching his head and turned to her. “I was thinking of you?”

  
  
“ _Me?_ ” Caitlin repeated, sounding a little strangled. 

  
  
He nodded. “You’re my best friend Cait, c’mon, you know that.”

  
  
Caitlin seemed stuck on the fact that he didn’t pick Cynthia.

  
  
Cisco shrugged when she asked again, wiping his hands on his napkin and crinkling his paper hamburger wrapper tightly in his palm. “I can’t go back to Cindy, not even for a night. My mental health is at risk. You know how I was like—Our connection, it was a fix. I blamed Harry for being addicted to the Thinking Cap but I was on a year long inter-dimensional vibrational frequency high.”

 

  
He opened a tiny breach and threw the wrapper into it. A distance away it opened again over a public garbage can for the wrapper to fall directly into.

  
  
Caitlin watched the whole thing with avid attention, marveling silently in the way she always couldn’t help when he did something cool.

  
  
“Show off,” she teased. He smiled.

  
  
“And now, it took almost a year, but I’m—I’m me again. I’ve gotten so far.”

  
  
Caitlin’s eyes softened for him. “You have,” she said gently, putting a hand on his bouncing knee. “I’m glad.”

  
  
Cisco’s mouth went dry, and his eyes fell to his lap where her fingers were curled around his leg. Her long pretty, talented fingers that have performed surgery and shot ice from their tips. His brain was going a little foggy as he belatedly wondered what Caitlin truly meant. She said...She said she’d sleep with her best friend. That was _him._  Sure, it came out of a game of Would You Rather, the crowd pleaser gossip maker of middle school sleepovers, so Cisco shouldn’t be overthinking.

  
  
But. _But._

  
  
He wasn’t imagining this.

 

  
When he lifted his head, Caitlin had moved. She was leaning out of her passenger seat, over the greasy paper bags and her abandoned phone brightly probing the next question.

  
  
“Tell me to stop,” she dared, her breath making a cloud of mist in the cold space between them.

  
  
Cisco’s eyes fell to her mouth. “Don’t stop.”

  
  
Her hand on his knee slid to his thigh, where she braced her weight.

 

And then they were kissing. And kissing. And kissing.

 

Cisco’s mind went blissfully blank for the first time in his life. His hands automatically went to her waist and he pulled her body forward so that she was sitting horizontally on his lap, her boots now stretched against the passenger door as her back pressed against the driver’s side.

 

She knocked the woollen hat off his head to grab onto his hair as he tugged away the red scarf from around her neck in a frantic motion. He felt her pulse under the pressure of his thumb. He slid his finger away and kissed her neck, feeling the heat of her exposed skin on his lips. Caitlin shuddered in his arms and made a small desperate sound of “ _Please_.”

 

The car was cold and quiet, but they were weren’t. Flushed and pressed together, with hitched breathing and Caitlin’s sweet gasps as Cisco ran his hands up and down her sweater-clad back.

 

Cisco deepened the next kiss, and he felt the air crackle with energy between them. This, _this_ was real. This was what Cisco had been missing, and it’s crazy because he knew very well what it felt like to be slammed by numbing thoughts and feeling. It’s what he lived, what he experienced with his vibes, like being dunked underwater without the chance to hold your breath or close your eyes. But this was all-encompassing, this was every vibe and more, and it’s not terror or apprehension that zoltz through them, heightening all of their senses as Cisco groaned when greeted by Caitlin’s tongue. It was better, crisper, sweeter, _clearer._  It was two people, two pieces slotting together and solving a perfect puzzle for the first time.

 

It’s Caitlin who pulled away first, brushing some of _Cisco’s_ flyaway hair from her mouth, and stared at him wide eyed and unfocused, like she were intoxicated.

  
  
“Hi,” she breathed, then zipped down his winter coat to bury her embarrassment into his scarf. His hands moved instinctively to stroke her hair. “That was supposed to be just one kiss,” she confessed.

  
  
“Oh my god.”  He knew how dazed he sounded, awestruck and dreamy. “ _Oh my god_ , Caitlin,” he said again, and took a deep slow breath to prevent his heart from seizing out of his chest.

 

He wanted her mouth back on his, he wanted her hands back in his hair. Most of all, he wanted to see her, in the light, not in the darkness of the Star Labs van. He wanted to put his hands underneath her sweater and brush his hands over the dip of her spine, the swell of her breasts, he wanted her. _Wants_ her. Wants to have her like this forever.

 

“Hi. That was amazing.”

 

  
He wrapped a piece of her hair around his finger. “You’re so beautiful. I finally get to tell you that,” he whispered.

  
  
Caitlin lifted her face up from her hiding spot to kiss him again, chaste in comparison to what they were doing before. Cisco will never get over the shock of it. “It’s not the first time you’ve ever said that to me.”  
  
“Yeah,” he agreed, letting go of her hair, “But now you know what it means.”

 

“What does it mean?”

 

“It means...Everything it did before. You _look_ beautiful, and not just because you curl your hair or wear lipstick or can transform yourself into Killer Frost, but because you control crazy power, you care about people, you’re smart and kind and brave and supportive and protective of everyone, not just _me_. You’re the one I trust and you’re the one I go to for anything because you will always listen, and...Cait, you’re not trying to impress anybody, that’s just _you._  It’s a beautiful thing.”

 

Caitlin tried to duck her head from the praise, but he wouldn’t allow it.

 

And,” he smirked slyly, “It also means you’re the most attractive kisser I’ve ever seen.”

 

Caitlin snorted. “You can barely see me in this dim light—And your eyes were closed the entire time.”

 

“I know. But I don’t need daylight to know that—Hey, you peeked!”

 

Caitlin’s shy giggles dissolved into full out laughter. Cisco watched her fondly.

 

She shifted in his lap, “Cisco,” she said, “I want to be with you.”

 

  
Cisco searched into her eyes. She was so open, expressive. It was new for her. "Really?  
  
  
  
She nodded. Caitlin looked down at her lap and took Cisco’s hands. “I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life. Cisco? Can I tell you something?”

 

“Anything,” he promised. She had his full attention.

 

“I caught the Barry Allen complex.”

 

Cisco raised an eyebrow. “The _what?_ ”

 

“The Barry Allen complex,” she said simply. “I’m in love with my best friend.”

 

Cisco felt the world fade away around them as he held her close.

  
“Huh,” he mused, “Then I guess I have the Barry Allen complex too.”

 

~.~

 

Barry spun around the cortex in exasperation. “I just don’t understand how you two could be sitting outside in a car for five hours and _not_ notice human _fish_ conducting a slave trade right _there_. What _happened?_ ”

 

“Uhhhh…” Caitlin said as Cisco scratched his head and mumbled, "They're called Bretans. Don't be insensitive Barry."

 

Barry rolled his eyes and began to type furiously at the monitor. “Okay maybe if I hack the next building’s security cameras I can figure out around what time it happened.”

 

Caitlin’s eyes grew horrifically wide as Cisco lunged for the computer.

 

“No don't! No no no no no, Barry!” Cisco shouted as he fought Barry for the mouse, but the damn speedster was too quick and then it was too late.

 

Yes, the footage was grainy, but it was unmistakable that the two people in the Star Labs van were in the middle of a midnight romp as four business men and two businesswomen with fins had a lengthy conversation about a man several feet away in chains. 

 

Barry froze in shock, then quickly exited out of the window when his brain rebooted.

 

“Really? The Star Labs Van?” Iris judged from the other side of the room. Otherwise, Cisco realized weirdly, she didn’t seem all that surprised.

 

Caitlin covered her face with her hands in mortification as Cisco pushed Barry out of the chair. “I'm so sorry Sweetheart. I don’t care if I have to build a submarine to find the Bretans under the sea in order to find Ralph and the missing people, we are _deleting_ this tape.”

 

Barry nodded dumbly from the floor, covering his eyes. “I have no need to see that ever again.”

 

FIN

 

**Author's Note:**

> I bet ya'll think I made this up. Nope. Ralph Dibny literally got kidnapped by merpeople called the Bretans (their undersea city was called Breta) who set up a human slave-trade thingy in the comics' silver era. Look it up!!


End file.
